Dear Prayer Partners,
A brief update.
I am writing you from ship, enroute to Ft Lauderdale, two days out yet.
At 75 cents a minute and taking up to 6 minutes just to load my gmail account, I am not using the Internet except for this message. LaVerne has been communicating with me via our Ukrainian phones, using sms. There is no charge by our Ukrainian provider for receiving messages.
LaVerne had sucessfull knee cap reattachment/realignment surgery and was doing well walking without a cane. Then, close to time that the staples were to be removed, the knee became scarlet red and swollen. She was put back in the hospital yeterday and is to be put on a PICC IV (it is a tube that ends near the heart — I will have to google it when I get affordable Internet). The IV carries some potent antibiotics and was irritating the veins with a regular IV. She feels fine except for the stiff knee. We do not want this infection (cellulitis?) to get into her joint or system, of course.
My brother Michael, two days younger than LaVerne, was on a hike on Ascension Island where he works, when his chest and arm pains and fatigue caused him to not be able to take another step. I do not know all the details yet, but his downrange company had him, along with a nurse, flown to Melbourne/Cocoa Beach, FL where his wife lives. For Thanksgiving he was under observation in the hospital. He had a heart attact on the island due to 70% blockage — a stent has been inserted and he is out of the hospital, on the mend.
Your prayers and thanksgiving are appreciated.
Georges (and LaVerne)
PS Also while at sea, I received an SMS (text message on my phone) that a radiator in our apartment in Simferopol began to leak on the ceiling in the basement office below us – not the basement we have access to but the one next to us. Zhenya has had to take care of that problem, and a pipe problem in the Tabitha warehouse. I am almost afraid to check my email!